Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory PDF
Preview Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory
Modern Alchemy This page intentionally left blank Modern Alchemy Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory mark s. morrisson 1 2007 3 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright#2007by OxfordUniversity Press,Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Morrisson,MarkS. Modernalchemy:occultismandtheemergenceofatomictheory / MarkS.Morrisson. p.cm. ISBN978-0-19-530696-5 1. Alchemy—History. 2. Occultism—History. 3. Nuclearchemistry. 4. Alchemyin literature. I. Title. QD13.M67 2007 540.1'12—dc22 2006029629 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper To Laura, Devin, and Ciara, Marilyn and Clovis Morrisson, and Mary von Ahnen—again This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Several scholars andinstitutions have been instrumental in helping melaunchandresearchthisproject.IamespeciallygratefultoPhilip Jenkins, without whose encouragement, support, and voluminous knowledgeoftheworldofoccultismthisbookwouldnothaverealized its full potential, andto CynthiaRead,my editorat Oxford Univer- sityPress,forherunflaggingsupportofaprojectthatcrossessomany disciplinary lines. Iowe an immensedebt of gratitude to Linda Dalrymple Henderson, whose constant encouragementand detailed researchon theintersections betweenscience andoccultism in the modernistperiodhaveinspiredmuchofmywork.M.E.Warlick’svast knowledge ofalchemy and itstwentieth-century manifestations in the arts haslikewise movedmythinkingalongat several sessions of the Society forLiterature, Science,and the Arts. Indeed,the project benefited greatly from the cross-disciplinary testinggroundpro- vided by the SLSA. Susan Squier,Wenda Bauchspies, and other members of thesciencestudies reading group at Penn State Univer- sity helped clarify theaims ofthis project in itsearly stages. I am grateful to Michael Gordin,whose meticulous reading ofmy manu- scriptchallenged me to reconsider some of myassumptions and deepened myknowledge ofoccultappropriations of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century science. Iam also greatly indebtedto the anonymous second reader ofthe manuscriptfor anumber of key suggestionsthatenhancedthefinalproject.IalsowishtothankLynn Allan Kauppifor his careful yetspeedycopyediting. viii acknowledgments IalsowishtothanktheBodleianLibraryatOxfordUniversityforpermis- siontodoresearchintheFrederickSoddyPapersintheirModernManuscripts collections,andtheMuseumoftheHistoryofScience,OxfordUniversity,for permission to work with Soddy’s lecture notes and papersin their archives. I thank University College London, Special Collections, for permission to do researchintheSirWilliamRamsayPapers.Ialsothankthespecialcollections librariansattheUniversityofIllinois,Urbana-Champaign,foraccesstoH.G. Wells’spapers,andtheUniversityofTexasatAustinHarryRansomHuman- itiesResearch CenterforaccesstoEdith Sitwell’spapers.Frances Soarofthe GeographicalAssociation,theadministratorsoftheFrederickSoddyTrust,and MaxwellWrightandGwenHuntleyofBunkersSolicitorsgenerouslyhelpedme inmyeffortstotrackdownanestateforFrederickSoddy’s unpublishedwrit- ings. And I wish to thank Mark Smithells and the Smithells family in New ZealandforpermissiontoquotefromArthurSmithells’sunpublishedmanu- scriptintheFrederickSoddyPapers. PennStateUniversityprovidedmeasabbatical,aFacultyResearchGrant fromtheResearchandGraduateStudiesOffice,andasemesterasaResident Scholar at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities that provided the time away from teaching and administrative duties and the travel support that facilitatedthecompletionofthisbook.Iowespecialthankstomydepartment head, Robert Caserio, for his extraordinary commitment to this project, and Deborah Clarke, Janet Lyon, Robin Schulze, and Sanford Schwartz for help- ingmekeeptheprojectmovingatcrucialstages.Myundergraduateresearch assistantsGregJonesandElizabethParfittprovidedinvaluablehelpwiththeir careful exploration of many years of Theosophical and occult periodicals, newspapers, andpopular sciencejournals.Likewise,thehardworking Interli- braryLoanstaffatthePennStatePatteeLibrarygraciouslyhandledmyseem- ingly endless requests for obscure periodicals. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Laura Reed-Morrisson, for her support and her careful readings and insightful suggestions on every draft of the manuscript, and I thank my son Devin and daughter Ciara for their will- ingness to endure the long hours I spent at work on this project. Contents Introduction, 3 1. From the Golden Dawn to the Alchemical Society, 31 2. Occult Chemistry, Instrumentation, and the Theosophical Science of Direct Perception, 65 3. Chemistry in the Borderland, 97 4. Atomic Alchemy and the Gold Standard, 135 Epilogue, 185 Appendix A: Boundary-Work, Border Crossings, and Trading Zones, 195 Appendix B: Occult Interest Books by Alchemical Society Members, 205 Appendix C: A Partial List of Alchemical Society Members, 207 Notes, 209 Works Cited, 235 Index, 253
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